Best known as a trailblazing Black filmmaker, Melvin Van Peebles was a twentieth-century Renaissance man, transcending the boundaries of race and gender as an innovator in film, theater, music, art, literature, and business. With his recent death, the aim of this symposium is to honor and celebrate his life and legacy by providing a platform to review, study, and share the historical and contemporary impact of Van Peebles, and how through this examination, we might gain important insights about broader political and cultural dynamics. Furthermore, the symposium seeks to recognize emerging artists and artistry that extend Van Peebles’ radical tradition.
The symposium also will feature award-winning writer Wil Haygood, author of “Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World,” and academic, author, and artist Simone Drake, whose research focuses on how people of African descent in the Americas negotiate the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation. Drake also served as an editor of the book “Are You Entertained?: Black Popular Culture in the Twenty-First Century.”
Ticketing information can be found here.
